Veracity and Brianna's watch also passes without incident. The two
ladies wake up Tebryn, Igor, and Yol, and retire to their sleeping
nook. Tebryn settles down to watch the forward passage, while Yol and
Igor settle down in the rear.

Igor and Yol sit in silence for a while.

"Are there any cities down here where you can buy stuff?" asks
Igor. "Or do we have to wait until we return to the surface?"

"Oh, there are many cities in the Underdark," says Yol. "Maerimydra,
for example. But, we hear that death and destruction has swept
through that place, so I wouldn't assume there will be anyone
there would sell you anything." She scowls at him. "Not that they'd
likely sell to humans, any way."

Igor snorts, and the pair sit in silence.

(4:00 AM)

In the wee hours of the morning, Tebryn spots a female Drow with seven
mirror images approaching cautiously. She stops about sixty feet away
from him and stares at him. Behind her is strange construct: a
smoothly sculpted stone statue of a spider, fully twenty feet in
diameter and five high.

Tebryn ducks around the corner and crouches. He reaches out to shake
Hazen's ankle. When Hazen stirs, he whispers: "Trouble coming".

The drow conjures. A thick opaque wall of webs appears, stretching from
one wall of the cavern to the other, and reaching from floor to ceiling,
separating Yol and Igor from everybody else. Her jade spider advances
thirty feet, and now stands between the drow and the party.

Tebryn teleports back to Yol and Igor. They look up in surprise
and start when they notice the wall of webs. "Trouble, guys,"
says Tebryn. "I'll take you back across that wall." He holds out his
hands.

Yol stands and conjures some mirror images. She takes Tebryn's
hand.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall, Hazen stands up and kicks
Kress. Kress stands and draws his sword, looking around for a foe. He
shrugs, and activates his glow stone.

The drow steps forward, right behind her pet. She looks at Hazen and
Kress, and mutters an arcane incantation. A horrible scuttling swarm of
hand-sized spiders appear, covering the two Dargasians, and spreading
out around them for ten feet in all directions. Hazen and his cohort
are slightly bitten.

The jade spider lumbers forward another thirty feet and shoots forth a
web of glowing green energy at Kress. He dodges, but a force
cage made of webs surrounds where he had been standing.

Igor takes Tebryn's hand and the mage utters an arcane word. The three
disappear and immediately appear right behind where the drow and spider
had been. Igor runs up to the drow, drawing his sword. He swings, and
cleaves through one of the mirror images before landing a solid
blow on spellcaster herself. She wheels around, her mouth open in shock
and surprise at the unexpected attack.

Yol lets go of Tebryn's hand and pulls a small ball of guano from her
spell component pouch. She hurls it at the jade spider and a
twenty-foot radius ball of flames engulfs both the construct and a
section of the swarm. The statue is completely unaffected, but the
spiders in the swarm are reduced to ashes.

"Spiders! So, where are the girls? Going to sleep through yet another
battle?" He activates his invisibility. Within seconds, the
curtain to the alcove shifts aside and Hazen's voice screams at the
sleeping damsels. "Get up! Giant spider!". Veracity opens her eyes and
stares at him. Brianna sits up and rubs her eyes, before picking up her
lyre and standing. "All right Hazen. You can leave now. We're
coming." The curtain closes.

Kress moves up to the jade spider, drawing his long sword. He strikes
at it, damaging it slightly.

The drow stares with horror at Igor and withdraws to the opposite side
of her pet. She practically backs into Kress, and gasps when she
recognizes her predicament.

Veracity stands up and fades from sight as she activates her ring of
invisibility.

Tebryn chuckles. He casts a pair of silver pins to the ground and a
lightning bolts starts at the jade spider and arcs to the drowess.
Neither is affected in the slightest, and Tebryn scowls.

Igor flies up behind the construct. "This looks tough," he comments, as
he activates his cloak of displacement.

Yol moves up and sends a volley of three bolts of force at the
drowess. They all fizzle harmlessly when they strike her. Yol scowls,
even more than usual.

One of the drow's mirror images pops and the formerly visible
Hazen appears.

Brianna steps out of her sleeping nook and quickly assesses the
situation. She starts to sing a hitherto unfamilar song, directed
specifically at Kress.

Kress ignores the jade spider and steps towards the drowess. He swings
his sword three times, cleaving through two images, and hitting the drow
herself twice. With wide eyes, she stares at him and transforms into a
gargantuan monstrous spider with three mirror images, filling
much of the space between her pet and Veracity's sleeping nook.

The jade spider slashes powerfully at Kress with one of its fore-legs,
injuring him severely. It slashes him with another leg and then bites
him. His body starts to stiffen, but the warrior resists the
petrification. "Yow!" calls Kress. "Talk about being between a rock a
hard place!" He looks back and forth in consternation at the two
spiders looming over him.

The curtain to the sleeping nook rustles and moves. Veracity's voice
speaks an arcane phrase, and Hazen, Kress and Brianna all seem somewhat
quicker.

Tebryn runs up behind the jade spider. He stares at the transformed
drowess and utters a single arcane word. "Blind!" he says, pointing at
the gargantuan spider. Its eyes turn milky.

Igor steps up to the construct and swings his greatsword at it three
times, connecting solidly each time.

Yol moves up behind Igor and mutters. A disembodied hand appears,
floating at her side.

Hazen stabs four times at the gargantuan spider, succeeding only in
destroying its remaining three images.

Brianna continues to sing, and Kress feels a wave of greatness washing
over him. He stands taller, and feels even more robust than usual. He
swings his long sword at the construct, connecting with it twice.
While the creature is distracted, Igor takes the opportunity to strike
it again.

The gargantuan spider shrinks down again into the form of the drowess.
She turns her head blindly in all directions, panicing, before
retreating into one of her spider swarms.

Veracity mutters and appears, her hand pointing at the blind drowess.
Her face falls, as her spell fails to affect her foe.

Tebryn gazes at his companions. "You hasted that side of the
battle? I'll do the same for this side." He incants, and Igor, Yol,
and Tebryn all seem to be moving faster.

Igor strikes the jade spider twice and it slumps to the ground.

Yol conjures and sends her spectral hand over to touch Kress,
healing a lot of his damage, and closing his bleeding wounds.

The blinded arachnomancer had backed herself into a corner. Perhaps she
thought that the dense swarms of spiders would slow down her enemies and
give her a chance to escape, but any such hopes were dashed when Hazen
moved right up next to her and stabbed her with his dagger. "Ouch!" he
yelps, as the hand-sized spiders swarm over him, but the valiant duergar
stands his ground. Kress moves up next to his master and strikes
powerfully at the drowess. With a single uttered word, she vanishes.
"Where'd she go?" wonders Kress.

From across the cavern, Veracity watches the battle. When she sees
Ruallith disappear, she nods. "Time to run, eh? But where?" she
wonders. She looks to the left, down the passage through which the
attackers had come. "Your lair may be that way, but if you go back
there, we'll come across you soon enough." She looks back at the
wall of webs and slowly nods. "But, if you think to escape that
way, you'll succeed unless I chase you. You're mine!" Veracity utters
an arcane word and vanishes. Only Brianna, standing fifteen feet away
from her companion, notices.

The various fighters look around. "No more foes," says Igor. "Looks
like the battle is over." He deactivates his cloak.

"She shouldn't escape death that easily! Let's see if she's on the other
side of the wall." says Yol. She incants and waves her hand at
the wall of webs. "That's permanent."

"I'd think she'd try to escape back to her lair," comments Tebryn.
"Surely it's in that direction?" He points in the direction the
drow had come with her spider.

"Perhaps she was on her way home when she found our camp," says Igor.

"Maybe," says Tebryn. "Or maybe she was just wandering. If she went back
the way she came, we'll find her tomorrow. She's not going anywhere.
She's blind."

"No, I think we need to go through that wall, immediately. What if
she's escaping? Maybe we can burn through," suggests Kress. He walks up
to the wall. "Hmm, Anyone have a fire?" He looks around and sees that
some of the spiders are still smoldering from Yol's fireball. He runs
over and picks one up. "Ouch! Yow! Oh!" he screams, juggling the
red-hot coal before dropping it. He sucks on his fingers. "Come on.
Fire, anyone? Hurry!"

"All right," says Igor, walking over to the wall. "But what's the rush?"

"She might be getting away!" responds Kress.

Igor hold up his hand and presses his ear to the wall. His brow furrows
as he listens intently. He straightens his back and turns back to his
companions. "I don't hear anything. What were you planning on doing,
anyway? Just running off through the dark?"

"Come on, Igor," begs Kress. "Burn it! I want to chase her."

Igor sighs. He rummages through his pack and pulls out one of his
nunchaku. When he utters a command word, one end of it bursts into
flame. He smiles. "I've been wanting to try this out! Stand back."
He applies the flaming end to the thick wall of webs, passing it back
and forth, to no effect: not even a scorch mark appears on it. He
utters another command word and the flaming weapon extinguishes
itself. "Sort of like that giant spider's web in Szith Morcane," he
comments as he stows the nunchaku. "Impervious."

"I must get through," says Kress. He draws his longsword and
charges at the web. "Yah!" he screams, hacking wildly. Igor leaps back
and stares at him in astonishment. Hazen's jaw drops.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall, Veracity had appeared just
past Ruallith. Upon seeing her blind foe, she smiles grimly and draws
her sword. Ruallith steps forward and bumps into Veracity. She
freezes, and Veracity stabs her. Ruallith slumps to the ground.

Veracity crouches over her dead foe and reaches out to touch her holy
symbol. She sighs. "Lolth. Would that you had parleyed, rather than
starting out with an attack. Well." She stands and incants. She
starts to scan the fallen drow for magical auras. "Hmm. Interesting
cloak, unusual leather armor, a dagger with ... necromancy? And a boring
old ring of protection, I wager." She quickly looks through her
foe's pack and frowns. "Nothing." She leans over, grabs the drow's
arm, utters an arcane word, and vanishes.

She appears with Ruallith's corpse at approximately the same place she'd
left, outside her sleeping alcove, about forty feet behind the humans.
She releases her burden and straightens her back, staring in
astonishment at Kress's little display. Brianna spies her and runs over
with a grin to hug her companion. Tebryn glances over at her and then
down at the corpse. He smirks and looks back at Kress.

"Aargh! Yah!" screams Kress as he frantically slashes at the wall.
With one mighty slice, he finally cuts his way through and dashes into
the darkness beyond. "I'll get you!" he calls, as his footsteps fade
into the distance.

His companions stand in amazement, shaking their heads.

"Considering that Veracity brought back our foe, I don't think Kress
will find her," says Tebryn. He chuckles and walks over to Veracity,
followed by Igor, Yol, and Hazen. "Is she dead?"

"I'm afraid so," says Veracity. "I couldn't resist stabbing her,
although I immediately thought better of it. She'd likely be easier to
question as a prisoner, than as a corpse. But, it's not easy to hold
back."

"That's what you said with the fish-man," says Igor. "It
certainly is easy to control yourself."

Veracity smirks. "That's what you said with the fish-man,
Igor. If you think I'm easy to control, let's see you try!" She
eyes him speculatively.

Tebryn hides a smile with his hand and turns away. Igor just smiles
and shakes his head.

Veracity sobers. "But, you are right. If we want to question her, Yol
will have to do it." Yol nods.

"Does she have any good stuff?" asks Hazen. He crouches over the body.

"Unusual cloak - not abjuration, so not resistance. Unusual
armor - it's got illusion on it. Boring ring - abjuration, just like any
ring of protection. And a dagger with minor necromancy in it."
Yol looks up, her eyes gleaming. With a thin smile, she picks up the
black serrated blade, and fingers it gingerly.

Veracity picks up the cloak and takes it over to Brianna. "Try this
out!" Brianna removes her cloak and puts on the new one. She seems
even cuter than usual to the eyes of all. "I think this is like my old
one, but more powerful." Veracity smiles at her and nods
appreciatively. "You should wear that!" Brianna grins back at her and
nods.

"I could use it too," suggests Hazen. "Although, I am probably cute
enough."

Veracity looks at him appraisingly and nods. "Yes. It would be wasted
on you."

Hazen beams. "Right! Brianna should wear it."

"Look at this," says Veracity. She leans over and picks up Ruallith's
holy symbol. "Lolth. But, she was clearly no cleric. Even if Lolth
weren't silent..."

"Druid, maybe," suggests Tebryn. "Those swarms she summoned, and that
shapeshifting into a gigantic spider." He frowns. "Well,
that was unusual. I didn't think druids could shift into the
form of vermin."

"That wall and her teleportation magic - seems arcane, not divine," says
Veracity. "but, she's clearly no wizard. She doesn't have a spell
book. A shame - I've never seen a wall of web before and it'd be
interesting to learn it. She was a sorceress, I assume."

"Perhaps she left her spell book at home," suggests Igor.

"If so, home is close," says Tebryn. "No wizard travels more than a half
day from home without his spell book. And if her home is within half
day from here, it must be that way." He points in the direction
Ruallith had originally come. "There's no way we'd have missed that huge
spider construct in the direction we came."

Veracity yawns. "Lets go back to sleep." She picks up the Ruallith's
holy symbol and goes into her alcove, followed by Brianna.

"Where's Kress?" wonders Hazen. Veracity stops at the door of her
alcove. She looks towards the wall of web and concentrates. "I think
he's on his way back now, Hazen." She puts up the blanket over the
entrance to her sleeping nook. "Stay out, Hazen. No more barging in!"
Aside from a few giggles, nothing more is seen or heard of her or
Brianna that night.

"I'll only come in if we're attacked again," says Hazen. He walks over
to the sundered wall of web and looks through it, frowning. Several
minutes later, Kress returns. He walks stiffly to his sleeping place
and lies down. "I must return to my sleeping spot and sleep," he
says. He closes his eyes and soon the sound of gentle snores fills the
air.

Hazen looks down at him with a worried expression. "Something's wrong
with you, big guy. First the way you charged off frantically, and then
the way you returned and just fell asleep. Hmm."

Yol comes up. "Very strange," she comments. "You didn't even beg for
healing, although you need it. I'll cure you, anyway." She conjures,
twice, and heals some of Kress's wounds.

"Thanks, Yol," says Hazen. Shaking his head, the gray dwarf lies down
himself and falls asleep.